Version: Update
by laniew1
Summary: Andrew sees things quite a bit more clearly than people give him credit for.
1. Siobhan, Version 1

**AUTHORS NOTE: I hadn't intended to publish this on as it was already available on A03 and my LJ. But since someone else had decided to try and publish this as their own work (they've since removed it), I've decided to load it up here as well.**

Siobhan, Version 3.0

By Melanie

They don't have family dinners. At the beginning, when Siobhan had been trying and he had been trying and Juliet had been attempting to accept they'd tried them. They'd never sat very well.

Three awkward people with little to nothing in common sitting around the table, two of them pretending to like each other, the other two slightly too wrapped up in themselves to care if Juliet was miserable and Siobhan was hiding things.

He knew about her sister, he thinks Siobhan really doesn't know him as well as she purports to if she didn't believe he'd even do a cursory background check on her.

Especially before they got married.

So they don't have family dinners, or breakfasts, or even spend that much time in the kitchen at the same time.

He can probably be excused for being thrown off balance when he gets up and ready and goes to make coffee and maybe toast a bagel before he leaves for the day and finds Siobhan and Juliet sitting together at the kitchen table.

Juliet has a bowl of oatmeal in front of her, he wasn't even aware that they had oatmeal in the penthouse and Siobhan has her hands wrapped around a cup, blowing on it gently. He makes a motion like he's going to remind her that coffee isn't good for the baby when he sees the string hanging from the side of the cup.

"Did you call the number?" Siobhan is asking, Juliet drags her spoon through her oatmeal, making a face.

"He seems nice enough, but…" Juliet shrugs, she doesn't look at Siobhan, she bites her lip and hunches her shoulder, like she's waiting for the blow that will land and draw blood.

"He's a good listener," Siobhan says and she sounds… Andrew's not sure if he's ever actually _heard_ that sound coming from Siobhan's mouth. It sounds like compassion, like she cares and is worried; and it's all wrapped up in a package that looks like his wife but isn't acting anything like her. It's a conundrum and one he aims to solve.

He's actually growing _fond _of this version (Siobhan Version 3.0 Juliet had called her several days before, Siobhan had been Version 1.0 when they'd been dating and 2.0 when she'd become what Juliet refers to as the bitch-mother) can see very clearly the possibility of falling back in love with her, he thinks he would like to keep this version of his wife around for as long as he's able.

Though Siobhan has a habit of reinventing herself, version 4.0 is coming soon he's sure and when it does they'll be over and done and he'll get to find out if the prenup that his lawyers slaved over will manage to keep the majority of his money.

"You've talked to him?" Juliet asks, she sounds surprised and after a moment Andrew realizes that they're talking about a counselor of some sort and he's surprised as well.

Siobhan bites _her _lip and bends her head over her cup. If she'd been alone she'd be slouching he's sure, all actions that he's never seen Siobhan display, not ever in the time that they've been together.

He puts a hand to the door to steady himself and he closes his eyes.

"My sister," Siobhan says softly. "She was… she had some problems."

The sister, the _identical twin sister._

He wonders what the woman sitting at the table would do if he walked in there and called her Bridget.

Would she jerk in shock, would she issue sharp tongued denials and scoff and roll her eyes?

/Ringer/

The FBI Agent had left a card with Siobhan, he's not _entirely _sure that the woman that he's been living with and possibly falling back in love with is his wife's twin sister.

The possibility of her sister being dead, of being missing at the very least could have shaken some emotion loose in Siobhan that she'd thought long buried. Coupled with the pregnancy her hormones and emotions could overruling any barriers that she'd put up to protect herself.

Of course if she is actually Bridget there is likely no pregnancy and the emotions, the fact that she lets others see them, could just be Bridget herself not being a cold-hearted bitch like her sister.

"This is Agent Machado," the voice is smooth, on the phone and Andrew contemplates hanging up. Of going back to work and then going home to his daughter who is talking to someone and to Siobhan who is seemingly happy to see him return.

"Mr. Martin?" Victor Machado is good at his job, that's what anyone he's talked to has said. He's good at his job and if just the little bit of digging that he's done into Bridget's past is true this man is probably one of the few who can protect her until she can say the things that she needs to say.

"I'd like to talk to you about Bridget Cafferty."

/Ringer/

They meet at a coffee shop that is not his normal one, it's one that Agent Machado had suggested and it's off the beaten path, so to speak. Less of a chance of someone like Siobhan seeing them together.

"How much trouble is she in?" he asks. He doesn't even want to broach the subject, but he needs to know if making Agent Machado aware of even the _possibility_ that Siobhan is actually Bridget is going to put her danger…

Well he won't have that.

"I can probably get the assault charges dropped," Machado says, he cocks his head to the side and studies him. "She's scared; I would be too under the circumstances. She thinks that we can't protect her…"

"Can you?" Andrew asks.

"We did alright up until the day before she was set to testify, we haven't been able to figure out what set her off, why she ran off and went to ground."

"Have you investigated the possibility that someone tried to take her from wherever you were hiding her?"

Machado shakes his head. "The agents on rotation were all ones that I trusted implicitly, all ones that I've worked with before. She just… Why the sudden interest in Bridget?"

Andrew takes a sip of his coffee, then takes a breath. "My wife has been acting oddly."

"Bridget's been in contact with her," Machado says. "We found a locker that had some of her personal affects in it; one of those items was a letter to Bridget from your wife."

"She never…" Andrew sighs. "She never actually _told_ me about her sister, you see. I only know because my lawyers did a background check when I began dating her. She never told me herself."

"They had a falling out several years ago, drugs, alcohol, lifestyle choices. I'm sure your wife had her pick of reasons to cut Bridget loose. She's clean now though, but if she's actually on the streets," Machado shrugs. "Well there's nothing stopping her from starting up again. I'm half afraid sometimes that she'll come into the morgue as an overdosed Jane Doe and we'll be completely screwed."

They sit there and Andrew doesn't have the first clue what the right thing to do is.

"You believe that your wife is Bridget," Machado says finally.

"No," Andrew shakes his head. "Not entirely." Because there has always been Siobhan, there has always been Bridget; Bridget has not been playacting at being her sister this whole time, of that he is very sure.

"We know they met, the letter tells us that much, who's to say that Siobhan didn't send Bridget back in her place, or that there was some sort of accident that Bridget took advantage of."

"My wife is pregnant," Andrew says softly.

They'd stopped trying, that's when people said it happened. When you stop trying so hard sometimes that's just the push it needs to happen.

Of course there's also the possibility that the baby that Siobhan is carrying is not his, she'd been having at least one affair that he knew about. The baby could be that mans though he's trying not to think about that.

"Congratulations," Machado says. "But you know if the woman that is currently living with you _is_ Bridget there is no baby."

Andrew stares at him, sets his cup carefully down and steeples his hands.

"What needs to happen?" he asks.

"DNA test, fingerprints," Machado says. "I'll be taking her with me back into protective custody if it is determined that she's Bridget."

"I think she'll be better protected if she stays with me."

"Are you really going to put your daughter at risk like that?" Machado quirks an eyebrow at him.

"She'll be better protected if she stays with us," Andrew says stubbornly. "If she's Bridget you can post guards in the lobby and at the elevator, but our building is secure."

Machado nods once, though his eyes say that he's going to continue arguing against this plan of action. Andrew might as well if it is determined that the woman he's living with is not Siobhan. Of course he likes this woman that may or may not be he wife. Several weeks ago he couldn't have said that.

/Ringer/

He can understand Gemma's anger and pain; she lashes out at Siobhan and Henry at every opportunity. The only problem he can see is that if Siobhan is actually Bridget well Bridget's not been one half of the duo cuckolding them for almost a year.

Bridget, in this instance and most likely _just _this instance, is just as innocent of any wrong doing as Gemma or Andrew.

/Ringer/

She goes shopping with Juliet, he comes home with work and they're in the living room sorting through bags. There are more clothes for Juliet then for Siobhan, another mark in the column that this is not his wife.

Besides the fact that she's holding a shirt up to herself that Siobhan wouldn't have been caught dead in.

He smiles and laughs and they startle and look over at him and they both smile back at him, Juliet's eyes are happy and light, pain free for the moment and Siobhan looks young and carefree and just like the woman that he fell in love with and married.

He stands there, hands on the back of a chair and watches as Juliet pulls clothes out of a bag and whispers with Siobhan.

He wants to ask, _is my wife dead, are you the sister that she wouldn't tell me about. _He doesn't, he's not sure if it's because he's scared of the answer or scared of how things will change if it's found to be the truth.

/Ringer/

Machado leaves a message on his voice mail, a date and a time and a stern 'make sure she's there'.

Andrew listens to the message four times, writes down the date and time and puts a note on the refrigerator reminding Siobhan of a doctor's appointment that she didn't make.

/Ringer/

She's curled up on their bed that night; she doesn't seem to remember that they've not shared a bed or room in two months; that she's been sleeping in the guest bedroom that she decorated with all her favorite things like she knew that there would come a time when she wouldn't want to lie next to him.

If this is his wife she's three months along; the baby _could_ be his, if there even is a baby.

"Are you mad at me?" she asks and he tightens the belt on his bathrobe, fingers gripping smooth fabric.

She looks scared, though she's taking great pains to hide it.

"No," he says. "Of course not, have you done something that would make me angry?" he asks.

She's been ever so patient with Juliet, taking her to meet the counselor that regardless as to what Juliet says she actually likes. And she's been attentive to Andrew, though she also keeps trying to make herself invisible.

Like she wants to be there but she doesn't actually want to be seen.

That's not Siobhan behavior, if it had been two months ago he would say that she's plotting something.

"If I were to ask you something," he begins. "Would you tell me the truth?"

"Yes," she says promptly, he sits on the edge of the bed and then situates himself so he's sitting against the headboard; she curls up against him like its instinct, like its normal behavior.

It's not.

Her hand twines in the belt on his robe, wrapping it around her hand multiple times.

"Are you having an affair with Henry?" he asks softly, her hand stops moving and she tilts her head so she can look at him.

"No," the conviction in her voice is what seals it for him.

This is not Siobhan.

/Ringer/

He goes with her to the doctors' appointment, she keeps insisting that she doesn't need him there to hold her hand but if she's going to be blindsided with the truth by Agent Machado he wants her to know that she has at least one person in her corner.

She holds his hand in the elevator, fingers clenching around his until he pulls her into a loose hug. She almost clings to him; he kisses the top of her head and then releases her, allowing her to take his hand once more, their fingers linked together.

She smells like his wife's expensive shampoo and perfume, but she's dressed in a manner that Siobhan would never dress herself in.

"Siobhan Martin," she says to the receptionist, the woman looks at her and smiles, it's thin and not friendly and says, "you can have a seat, we'll be ready for you in a few minutes."

"Okay," she still has a grip on Andrew's fingers and tugs him over to a small waiting area. "I don't think she likes me," she says in a quiet confiding tone.

"Maybe she just doesn't like her job," Andrew suggests, there's a small smile on her face when she glances over at him, her fingers are still clenching his, he runs his thumb over the back of her hand.

"Mrs. Martin?" a young woman in what has to be the ugliest dress that Andrew has ever seen calls from another door. She has a clipboard in her hand and when Andrew stands to follow she shoots him a look and shakes her head.

He just smiles at her enigmatically and follows.

They're led down a short corridor and the young woman taps three times on a door and then pushes it open, standing to the side so they can walk past her.

Andrew has his arm settled along on her back, hand on her hip, so he can feel her jerk and go to back away.

"Now Bridget, don't be that way, we just want to talk," Agent Machado is standing behind the doctors' desk. He looks calm and serious and he's not wearing his jacket so Andrew can see his shoulder holster and gun.

"I don't…" she starts and Andrew tugs her up against him, doesn't say anything when she wraps her arms around him, just presses his lips against her temple, he can feel her shaking, she's terrified.

"Its okay, Bridget," he whispers. "It's going to be okay now."


	2. Family, Version 4

Version, Update

Family, Version 4.0

He only has himself to blame; that's what he tells himself.

The stiffness in the air, the fact that Bridget hides herself in the room that no one had slept in since she'd come into their lives masquerading as her sister.

These things are all his fault.

He could have left well enough alone, could have accepted this new version of Siobhan, could have fallen back in love with this new version of the wife that he'd thought he was only months away from filing papers against.

He could have kissed her and touched her and let her stay in his bed, let her curl around him and eventually when she was comfortable, when it had been long enough he would have made love with her.

There would have been a child, and he certainly wouldn't have been wondering the probability of it being anyone other then his. Bridget in the guise of Siobhan had very firmly shut Henry out even as she'd kept Andrew pulled tight against her.

Like she thought to honor her sister by saving the marriage that her sister had been all but flushing down a drain.

Juliet bites her lip and her eyes go to the door.

In just a few short days she's become used to eating breakfast across the table from Siobhan. Andrew had told her just as soon as they'd returned that the woman that has been living with them is Siobhan's sister instead and she'd given him that look. The one that was just short of rolling eyes and a sarcastic _'I know, dad.'_

Juliet likes Bridget, she'd liked Bridget when she'd been pretending to be Siobhan and she'd known, like Andrew had known, that someone's habits and demeanor and _person_ don't change overnight without an extreme head injury first.

/Ringer/

The FBI has a presence downstairs, their doorman has a list and he checks them off as they leave and return. He feels like he's in boarding school again and half waits to be told of a curfew that a grown man shouldn't have.

/Ringer/

He taps softly on the bedroom door and waits. There's silence first, then a rustling that sounds like some shifting in bed.

He doesn't open the door and enter the room, Bridget is not his wife and he thinks that if they're going to return to the normalcy that they'd been living in someone needs to break the tension that fills the air of the penthouse.

"Come in?" he hears, it's soft, like Bridget is hoping that whoever has knocked has already given up and turned to walk away and won't hear it.

Andrew is tenacious though, he's given her almost a week, now it's time to figure out what they're going to do.

He turns the handle on the door and pushes it open, entering the room to see that Bridget is curled up on the bed and she's pale and looks tired.

"Is that one of my t-shirts?" he says, he can't stop himself because it's one of the t-shirts that he wears to the gym, it hadn't returned when laundry came back so he'd assumed that it had been beyond wearing and had been tossed. He hadn't realized that Bridget had appropriated it.

"It's soft," she says, she bites her lip and doesn't meet his eyes, there's some primitive, primal part of him that he normally keeps buried that feels some measure of satisfaction that she's wearing his clothing. He pushes the door closed as he enters and waits to hear the click of it shutting. He doesn't lock it, no need for Bridget to think that he's trapping them in here together, though he thinks that he'd like nothing more.

Things were simpler, he thinks, when he thought he was falling back in love with his more-then-difficult wife, not her twin sister.

/Ringer/

"Juliet thinks that you're angry at her," he says, he sits on a corner of the bed and folds his hands together in his lap. He looks at a painting that adorns one of the walls, it's one that he and Siobhan had bought together on one of their first trips overseas, they'd been in love and happy.

It surprises him slightly that she'd put that painting in this room that was her sanctuary from him.

"I'm not," Bridget says softly, she sounds stricken and when he looks over he can see that she _is_ stricken by the thought. She looks horrified that Juliet might thinks she's angry.

"I just thought," Bridget starts. "I didn't want to… I'm not Siobhan," she says helplessly, like she thinks they don't know that already.

"I think you are under some sort of mistaken belief that Juliet and your sister had any sort of relationship besides confrontational," Andrew says, he reaches out one hand and lets it fall just inches from where Bridget's legs are curled up under the blankets.

"Siobhan is her step-mother," Bridget says, "I'm… well I'm so far away from being step-mom or mom material that it's… well I'm honestly not sure how you guys thought I was Siobhan for so long."

"We didn't," Andrew says, he shifts his hand and lays it over top of what he thinks are her crossed ankles. "While Juliet and I may have bought into the idea, we neither one were able to ignore the types of differences that would lead us to the conclusion that there was something amiss."

"Is that why you called Agent Machado?" she asks softly. "If you just wanted to unmask me as an imposter and get rid of me, why…" she waves a hand around.

"I don't want to get rid of you, Bridget," he says just as softly. "That was never my intent; I want to protect you to the best of my abilities. I want to be able to look at you and say 'hello Bridget, how was your day' and if that meant inviting the FBI into our home for even a short while to make sure that you were safe and kept safe, then so be it."

"This isn't our home," Bridget says. "This is _your_ home, with _my sister_."

Andrew sighs, and that is the crux of the problem, isn't it.

/Ringer/

Bridget is curled up in one corner of the couch, Juliet in the other. Andrew doesn't think that they realize that he's left his study and is standing in one darkened corner of the hallway watching and listening to them.

"I hope she's not dead," Bridget is saying.

"Well, you'd feel it, right?" Juliet says. "I mean twin-bond and all that, right?"

Bridget laughs a little, it sounds bitter and a little sad. "Siobhan and I didn't, we weren't like that."

"Twins?" Juliet sounds amused.

"No, we were, _are_ twins. We didn't have any sort of bond like that, we were close when we were young, but when we got older, well…"

"You liked different stuff, started to lead different life-styles?"

"Yeah, I'm not nearly as strong as Siobhan is, she pulled herself up and out of the gutter and I kind of… well I kind of wallowed in it, it was the only thing I knew. The only friends I had were there and once Siobhan got herself out, well she always said she'd get me out too."

"But she never did," Juliet sounds knowing.

"No, she did," Andrew straightens and he can see the arch of Juliet's back do the same, that's not something that he'd thought Siobhan would do. "I didn't _want_ her to get me out. She tried again, right after she met your dad, told me that she'd help me, get me out, get me into a rehab program, help me start my life fresh."

"You didn't want her help?"

Bridget huffs a small laugh. "I was so firmly addicted to the stuff I was on," Andrew can see her head shake. "And I knew that she was only offering because she was embarrassed by me. I thought; she's trying to get me cleaned up and respectable so her new family isn't completely embarrassed by her old one and I wasn't having any of that. The she told me if I didn't do it, if I didn't go into a program, _any_ program, that she was done with me. And I told her to go fuck herself and she said that she no longer had a sister and that was it."

"Bridget," Juliet says softly.

"She came when I needed her, so I hoped she wasn't as done with me as she'd said she was, but then…" Bridget says, she wipes a hand under her eyes and Juliet reaches across the couch to touch her arm.

"We can talk about something else," Juliet says. "Or we can turn the TV on, put a movie in." She glances over into the hallway and there's an almost desperate look in her eyes.

Andrew waits a moment, lets Juliet turn away to reach for the remote, lets Bridget wrap her arms around herself.

"I was thinking we could order Chinese, is anyone hungry?" he says as he walks into the room, they both look at him and he can see that Bridget's eyes are a little red and Juliet looks pale.

He doesn't expect an answer, but it would look odd if he didn't ask, "Did I miss something?"

/Ringer/

Bridget is eating with Juliet in the morning again, or Juliet is eating and Bridget is drinking tea while picking at a piece of toast.

Andrew doesn't join them, that was Juliet's time with Bridget and he's loathe to force them to give it up. Even though he'd like nothing more then to sit there with them, listen as they talk through their plans for the day.

Bridget's nodding to something that Juliet is saying when Andrew walks in, it's a sunny Wednesday morning, it's been almost three months since Bridget came into their lives, a little over two since they've actually been able to call her Bridget without fear of her running into the street, he's tightening his tie and mentally rolling through his schedule for the day.

The toaster pops up and that has to be his bagel because Juliet has oatmeal and Bridget has toast, he looks over at the table and Juliet is smirking at him, Bridget has a small smile on her lips hidden mostly by her cup.

"Am I really that predictable?" he asks, even as he reaches for a plate, there's cream cheese out and waiting because evidently they've heard him complain enough about cold cream cheese not being ideal to spread upon hot bagels.

"There's nothing wrong with predictable," Bridget says, her lips quirk and Andrew doesn't know what possesses him. Maybe he _is_ possessed and that's the problem.

He takes four steps to the table and ruffles Juliet's hair as he presses a kiss to the top of Bridget's head. He takes a step back and Bridget leans her head back to see him, across the length of the table Juliet is running her fingers through her hair attempting to set it to rights. Watching them closely.

He doesn't believe that she would have any issues with him attempting to woo Bridget, he should probably broach the topic with her though.

And sooner rather then later, he thinks.

"Good morning, Andrew," she says and there's a light in her eyes that he doesn't believe that he's seen before.

"Good morning, Bridget," he says, he runs a hand down the side of her head and she smiles at him.


	3. Trials, Version 2

Version, Update

Family, Version 4.0

He forgets that Bridget is not theirs sometimes, she has a life that does not contain Andrew and Juliet and about the time that he looks at her and thinks '_I'm in love with her_' is the time that Agent Machado returns.

The FBI has never been gone, there have been extra guards in the lobby and whenever Bridget ventures outside she has, at the very least, one armed bodyguard.

She doesn't go out very much. Explaining away the bodyguard when, save for himself and Juliet, no one is aware she isn't Siobhan is time consuming and an annoyance that Bridget doesn't like dealing with.

There's an added bonus that people are starting to look for a baby bump, since _Siobhan_ should be visibly pregnant at this point and time and Bridget is very obviously _not_.

"I could have a miscarriage," Bridget offers and Andrew shakes his head, somewhere Machado is shaking his as well.

"Then you would have to be in a hospital and you would require more then one guard," Andrew says.

Bridget hates the guards, but Machado is taking no chances of her fleeing again even though Andrew is quite aware, if only from the news that at least this time Bridget is not the sole witness against Macawi.

She's still one of their pivotal ones though.

He hears the buzzer at the door as he's making his way to the kitchen, he can hear Bridget and Juliet already in there, talking in soft voices so he makes a detour to answer it.

"Good morning Mr. Martin," Victor Machado is standing there and he looks grim and serious.

Andrew doesn't like the feeling that him standing in their doorway invokes, he's not had Agent Machado in their space since he brought Bridget home from the clinic with him.

"Andrew, did we mis-time your bagel this morning?" Bridget calls from the direction of the kitchen, she sounds amused and happy.

"May I come in?" Victor asks and Andrew nods his head slightly, when Victor is past him and in the penthouse he closes his eyes for just a moment to attempt to regain his sense of equilibrium.

He pushes the door closed and turns.

Victor looks understanding, which is something that Andrew doesn't want from him.

Understanding implies that he knows how Andrew feels, and he doesn't have the first clue how Andrew feels. How having Bridget here is like having the Siobhan that he first met back. The one that was kind and generous and liked being around him and with him.

How he and Bridget and Juliet are forming their own familial bonds that have nothing to do with Siobhan besides the small, inconsequential point that if they hadn't known Siobhan they would have absolutely no reason to have Bridget.

"She's in the kitchen," he says quickly. He can see Victor's mouth opening like he's going to offer some meaningless platitude, offer some quick bite of commentary that Andrew could just as easily do without.

Victor arches a brow and turns to walk in the direction of the voices, Andrew follows. Because he has no choice, but also because of Victor is going to take Bridget away so that she can stare down a monster, then at least she'll know that she has his support in that matter.

/Ringer/

"Was there someone at the door, dad?" Juliet asks, she doesn't turn but she probably sees the expression on Bridget's face as her toast drops from her fingers.

"Bridget," Victor says.

"So I guess this means that it's that time, again?" Bridget says, her face can't seem to settle into one expression, the muscles twitching as she bites at her lips, there's fear and sadness and regret and she's swallowing convulsively over and over again.

Andrew knows enough about Bridget Kelly now to know that she's trying to force herself to _not_ cry, even though she's desperate to.

He yearns to pull her into his arms, to cradle her and protect her. But Agent Machado is standing there and as much as he's not embarrassed by his feelings for Bridget, she's still technically his sister-in-law and her sister is still technically just missing.

/Ringer/

He goes with them to the airport; they'll apparently still have guards, most especially when they venture out of the penthouse. The outcome of the trial will dictate whether Bridget gets to return to them, or whether she goes into witness protection.

Victor is pushing for witness protection; Andrew is pushing for Bridget to be returned to them in exactly the condition that they released her over to the FBI in.

"You have keys," Andrew says, "this will all be over in a few days and you'll come home."

Bridget just looks at him, there's sadness and longing there and he reaches out to wrap his hand around hers.

She twists her hand under his and laces cold fingers with his, squeezing. He pulls her close, holds her against him and presses his lips to her forehead. He can feel her trembling as she clings to him and he wishes that he had the right words to say that would make her less scared.

He keeps her held tight against him even as he feels the car slow and veer gently to the right. He glances out the window and can see the airport terminal there as the car stops and is evidently pulled into park.

"I wish," Bridget says, her voice is muffled by his shoulder. "I wish I could have played pretend forever." Andrew pulls back and he can see that her eyes are wet. He runs his thumbs over her cheeks and they come away damp.

"We would have been happy," she says.

"You weren't happy these last few months?" Andrew asks. "Because I was."

"But if I were still her, if I were still Siobhan, I wouldn't have to leave," Bridget says, she brushes a hand against her cheek angrily.

"But Siobhan did leave me," Andrew reminds her, "Siobhan left Juliet and I and she sent us you in her place. I was planning to file for separation, to start divorce proceedings when you came into our lives. And you were like having Siobhan as I first met her back, fun and loving."

"I don't want to go," she whispers.

"It's okay to be scared," he says, "What you're doing is scary and dangerous, but also incredibly brave, because the alternative is leaving an awful man on the street to continue to do awful things," he strokes a hand down the side of her face, smoothes her hair back from her cheek.

"Andrew…"

"It's the right thing, and I'll, _we'll_ be waiting for you when you some back, we'll have a popcorn and movie night and I'll let Juliet and you pick out the most vapid awful movies that you can think of and we'll make sure you know that you're safe," Andrew draws her closer. Presses his lips against hers and he can feel her hand come up to his cheek to keep him from moving away.

They kissed when he thought she was Siobhan, but this is their first kiss with her as herself and as first kisses go it is quite chaste.

But he is still technically a married man and she is still technically going off to testify against a homicidal maniac.

"You go be brave," Andrew says, pulling back just slightly but tilting forward so their foreheads are pressed together. "When you're done you'll come home."

Bridget cups the side of his face in her hand, she smiles at him and he prefers to see the smile and not the sadness lingering in her eyes.

"Goodbye, Andrew," she says, she kisses him quickly, barely a press of her lips before she's twisting away and opening the door and leaving.

The door closes behind her and he's left sitting in the seat, hand still reaching out to where Bridget was just sitting moments before.

"Goodbye, Bridget."

/Ringer/

He'd been going to go into the office; he brought his satchel with him and was completely prepared to immerse himself in work in order to distract himself from Bridget leaving.

He doesn't, he has the car take him home and there have always been guards but the ones that are stationed there now are very noticeably FBI. Their posture and the fact that they scan the faces of every single person entering and leaving the building, the guards that are normally there, that will be there again when this is all over don't much care who comes in and leaves unless someone raises a fuss.

He nods to one of them and steps into the elevator, he rolls his shoulders in the privacy of the lift, wonders if Bridget and Machado have arrived at their destination or if they're still enroute.

Wonders if Machado is making sure she eats and naps and that she's not bored or scared. Though he thinks the last is an inevitability.

He tries not to think about that fact that he misses her and he doesn't think about what he and Juliet are going to do with the time that had been carved out as Bridget's.

It's only for a few days, he thinks. At the most a couple of weeks.

He opens the door, steps inside and places his satchel on the table before he closes it.

"Juliet? I'm home," he calls, it's soft, so if she doesn't want to answer him she doesn't _have_ to answer him.

"In here dad," he hears her call, there's something… odd about her voice and he has his keys in his hand still, closes his hand around them as he walks towards the living room.

"Are you okay?" he asks, just before he rounds the corner.

Juliet turns to face him and the expression on her face is one that he hasn't seen in while. She moves to the side and he can see… it's not Bridget, he knows this.

This is Siobhan, a very visibly pregnant Siobhan and it strikes him suddenly, like a punch in a gut that as much as he'd _wanted_ to have a child with Siobhan before, he really _doesn'_t want this child to be his.

She smiles at him, like she can tell what he's thinking, what he's hoping and knows that she's going to do anything in her power to crush whatever hopes and dreams he'd had about maybe beginning anew with Bridget beneath her heels.

"Hello, Andrew," she says and he desperately misses Bridget with her warm, sad eyes and bright smile and the fact that she'd actually seemed to _like_ him.

/Ringer/

Juliet is hiding in her room, Andrew wishes he could do the same. Instead he sits opposite Siobhan and pointedly doesn't look at her rounded stomach.

She should be almost eight months pregnant, and there is a very miniscule chance that the child she is carrying could be his, though he also knows that any free time she could manage that didn't look suspicious she was spending in bed with Henry.

He'd liked Henry once, thought him a friend.

He'd been wrong of course, Henry wasn't a friend.

"Where were you?" he asks. He keeps his voice soft and doesn't look over at her, sitting nestled in the pictures on the mantle is one of Bridget, Juliet and himself. Bridget is leaning into one side of him, both arms wrapped around his chest, he has one arm over her shoulder holding her close, the other arm is over Juliet's shoulder keeping her in place for the picture when she would have darted away.

They're all smiling, they look like a family.

"In Paris," she says, he looks at her from the corner of his eye and can see her press a hand to her belly, she rubs gentle circles.

She looks soft, maternal, loving except when she looks at him.

"Did you sleep with her?" she asks and he looks over at her with narrowed eyes, that _almost_ sounded jealous.

"I don't believe that's any of your business," he states.

"She's my sister, my _twin sister_ and you are my husband, I think if anyone deserves to know it would be me," her voice sounds harsh and betrayed and he laughs at the thought that there was anything left to betray.

"Don't play the cuckolded spouse, Siobhan, it doesn't suit you. And if you want to play the part of the betrayed and humiliated spouse let me remind you that you left me long before you actually _physically_ decided to flee the premises and allow Bridget a spot in our lives."

"She wasn't supposed to take my place," Siobhan says, growls really and Andrew wonders what her plan had actually been. She'd had one he's sure, Siobhan always has a plan.

"Then what was she supposed to do? You knew what was happening in her life, what had you planned for her to do?"

"I left her money, she was supposed to take it and leave," Siobhan says. "I should have guessed that she would have seen the opportunity to play me and take it."

Andrew arches a brow.

"Oh don't look at me like that; we've switched places before, not recently, mostly when we were kids just to see if we could. If anyone would notice that we had. She always thought that people treated her differently, better when she was playing me."

"What do you hope to accomplish by coming back?" he asks. Changes the subject really, because he knows when Siobhan is lying to him and he knows that she's lying to him right now and he doesn't have the energy at the moment to call her on it.

"You're my husband," she says. Her hand is still on her stomach, resting there now and she looks over at him. "And we're having a baby."

He smiles at her and her smile fades so he knows what his expression must look like.

"You got pregnant when? Sometime in late June? Early July? How many times did we sleep together in that time period, do you remember?"

"Andrew…"

"We slept together once, Siobhan," he leans close to her, rests a hand over top of hers, he squeezes her fingers. "Exactly once."

"It only _takes_ one time, Andrew, you should know that as well I."

"How many times did you sleep with Henry in that time period? I believe it was at _least_ every other day, if not more."

"Henry's married," she says. He wonders if she's going to try and deny it, she opens her mouth to continue but then stops, mouth snapping shut.

"Yes, and so were you. It stopped neither of you at the time and I don't believe it would stop either of you now."

He lets go of her hand, moves to his feet and walks over to the mantle, he touches the picture, Bridget's happy, smiling face, Juliet's laughing one. He's grinning, not laughing, not fully smiling but he's got two of his favorite people tucked into his arms and standing beside him and at the time he'd needed nothing more.

"Do you think that even if I leave again that you get to have her?" Siobhan asks. "She's _my sister_, if I tell her to stay away, if I call her up and tell her that I'm home she won't come back."

"You would do that? To your own flesh and blood?" Andrew asks. He doesn't know why he does, he knows she would. "Of course you would, you hadn't spoken to her for years prior to this summer, never mind that I've assured her that this is her home now and she will always have a place here."

"This is _my_ home, she's just an interloper in it," Siobhan snaps. "I'm just protecting what's mine."

"No, you just can't stand that she's happy, that _we_ were happy without you here. That we didn't fall to pieces and wail against the fates for taking you away. We moved on and we lived our lives and we made ties that were in no way connected to you."

"Except for the fact that she was playing at being me."

"Not for months, she's been Bridget, just Bridget for far longer then she was playing at being Siobhan," he takes the steps back to her, comes down into a crouch in front of her. "And I have to say, and mind you this is only _my_ opinion, you would have to ask Juliet and Henry and Gemma what they thought. But I think I liked _her_ version of you far better then I ever liked yours."

It's cruel he knows, so he's not surprised when she slaps him, he has been goading her. The sound of it echoes in the room, her hand connecting with his cheek. It doesn't hurt, just stings, though he's sure that it'll leave a red mark across his face.

"I'll call my lawyer, your bedroom is as you left it though I believe Bridget may have left a few things in there, I'll have them shifted to my room. You should call Henry," he says.

He doesn't look at her again, just goes back to the front door to grab his satchel off the table; he walks down the hallway to his office, closing the door firmly.

He can hear music going behind Juliet's door and though he hears footsteps in the hallway, Siobhan doesn't attempt to venture into his office.

He sits behind his desk, buries his head in his hands and breathes.

/Ringer/

Juliet watches the news at night, if Andrew is home, which is more frequently then he should probably be he watches it with her.

They're both looking for news, waiting for the information that says that Bodaway Macawi is going away for a very long time and that Bridget will be returning.

There are small blurbs each night, trial in progress. He catches a glimpse of her during a broadcast on Tuesday.

She looks small and tiny, surrounded by FBI and Marshal's as they usher her into the courthouse. He's had no contact with her since that day at the airport; Agent Machado had said that the silence was necessary.

'_No sense in giving them a target to try and force her to keep quiet_,' he said at the time.

Siobhan comes out of her room when they're sitting there watching the news, she and Juliet pick and poke at each other.

"Have you heard anything?" she asks on Thursday. It's been three days since Bridget left and Siobhan returned. The air in the penthouse is frigid and reminds him of the way things were before she'd left.

"No," he says, he doesn't look at her, just rolls his shoulders and stares at the television. "But Agent Machado said that he believed any contact would be a bad idea."

"Shh," Juliet hisses at them and Siobhan narrows her eyes at her while Juliet fumbles for the remote to turn up the volume on the TV.

"The trial of Bodaway Macawi continued today after a brief delay this morning due to reports of gunfire outside the courthouse," the reporter is saying, Andrew's eyes are drawn behind her where he can see the movement of cops and cars and an area that very much looks it's been cordoned off with police tape. His chest hurts and it's the only thing that reminds him to breathe.

"The Prosecution called its final witness yesterday after two days of testimony from law enforcement, Bridget Kelly is the only eye witness to the murder that Bodaway Macawi is on trial for and as such has been subject to much scrutiny by both sides. Reports of shots fired were timed with Ms. Kelly's arrival at the courthouse and no injuries were reported although the trial was delayed for several hours while the police conducted a search of the area."

Andrew presses a hand to his chest and reaches across the couch, Juliet latches onto his hand, squeezing tightly, fingernails digging into the top and side of his hand.

Siobhan has a hand pressed to her stomach; she looks pale though when she notices Andrew looking at her face evens out and her eyes narrow.

"I'm going to go lay down," she says, she scoots forward in the chair and stands awkwardly.

She leaves the room and Juliet is still clutching at his hand.

/Ringer/

He tries Machado's phone incessantly, voice mail, voice mail, voice mail, he's getting more and frustrated (and scared though he doesn't voice that out loud or even to himself).

"Dad?" Juliet's voice is soft, she's in the doorway looking small and young and he wishes that he had something to tell her. But there's nothing to tell because he can't get Machado to answer his phone.

"It's going to be okay," he says. He's lying, she knows that he's lying, but he's her father and she's scared, so at this point he thinks that she'll choose to believe him over the evidence that shows that he doesn't know that.

/Ringer/

"Do you really think that she's going to make you happy?" Siobhan is as curled up in the chair in the corner of his office as she can get considering her very pregnant state. He hadn't noticed her when he walked in and he probably should have. At one point he would have been almost physically attuned to her presence, mostly so that he could avoid her.

"I think that's not any of your business," he says, he has papers on his desk and he shuffles them into a pile, he'd got a call from his lawyer earlier, the paperwork had been delivered to Siobhan. She hadn't signed them, he hadn't really expected her to, though he'd like to have things with Siobhan closer to a resolution before Bridget returns.

If she ever returns, the trial is done, guilty verdict as Andrew had known there would be. Still there's been no calls from Bridget or Agent Machado.

"Have you talked to Henry?" he asks. He knows she hasn't, mostly because Gemma hasn't called him wanting to know what the hell is going on.

"You know I haven't," she says. Her voice sounds small, she _sounds_ like Bridget.

"You should," Andrew says. He sits in his chair, pulling it close to his desk. He doesn't look at her.

"The baby could still be yours."

He laughs, it sounds slightly bitter even to his own ears. He doesn't want to care about the baby that Siobhan is carrying.

He does though.

"Sign the papers, Siobhan. And talk to Henry."

"Why? To make you feel better about the fact that you've been fucking around with my sister," she snaps.

"You know that I've not laid a hand on her," he says calmly. She's trying to bait him, she most likely has a tape recorder going in the hopes of catching him admitting in infidelity or something close to it.

"You thought about it."

"Hmm, I didn't realize that you were psychic," he muses. "Is that a twin power that I should worry Bridget has as well?"

Siobhan makes a sound that's only very slightly removed from a growl, he smiles to himself.

/Ringer/

He hears a key in the door and he's taking a stock of who's home and who's not and trying to quell the tiny bit of hope that the fact that there's a key turning in the lock.

Siobhan is locked in her own bedroom, Juliet is curled up on the opposite end of the couch from him.

There's been no news; Macawi is going away for a very long time but he'd been slightly afraid that Machado had convinced Bridget to go into Witness Protection after all.

He'd have thought that Machado would have told them, even through discreet channels, especially since he'd made it perfectly clear that he'd wanted Bridget to come home when it was all said and done.

Juliet turns the volume down on the TV and she stares at the doorway, waiting, like him for whoever else has a key to walk into the room.

It's taking too long; he's half-pushed himself off the couch when Bridget appears in the entranceway. She looks tired and pale; she's wearing no makeup and her hair is pulled into a haphazard ponytail.

She's the most beautiful thing that he's seen in several weeks.

Juliet squeals and is across the room before Andrew even thinks about moving; her arms wrapped around Bridget and Andrew is smiling, beaming really.

"Hi, Andrew," she says, her eyes are locked on his over his daughter's shoulder and he wants nothing more then to be part of their group hug he takes the seven steps to them and wraps arms around both of them.

"Hello, Bridget," he presses a kiss to the top of her head and he should tell her about her sister in the other bedroom and he should tell her about everything that has happened in the weeks that she's been gone.

But those things will wait, for a while anyway.


End file.
